


Polly Churchill and the Templer of Doom

by lirin



Category: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 14:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8984257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Polly and Merope have been sent on an artifact retrieval mission, but they don't know that Indiana Jones is after the same thing! It's up to intrepid historian Colin Templer to save the day.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Redrikki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/gifts).



The dashing, intrepid Crusades historian darted out from behind a rock on his apocalyptically dangerous mission. Object-retrieval assignments like these were always dangerous, since the events that caused the items’ retrievability were often fires or other disasters; but this was one of the riskiest assignments of all, because headquarters had just discovered that Indiana Jones was after the same trove of artifacts! The two historians they had sent out were still blissfully unaware, so it was up to our hero to find his colleagues and warn them before it was too late.

Colin—no, that sounded too childish. Mr. Templer—still not good enough. _Doctor_ Templer, now that had a ring to it. He’d have to make sure to get a doctorate at some point. Anyway. Doctor Templer had been called in at the last minute to assist on this World War II–era drop because of his extensive knowledge of the Crusades, including a thesis on the Holy Grail itself. If only they’d consulted him sooner, he could have warned the team before they left. Instead, he had to travel to the past and warn them there. The lead historian he was now anxiously seeking was Miss Polly Churchill—actually, she should probably have a doctorate too.

Dr. Polly Churchill, skilled World War II historian, was leading the drop, with assistance from—some other historian. Perhaps Kivrin. Kivrin was a brilliant historian, although she hadn’t gone on any more drops since the one where Colin had met her. She’d be decent to have around when fighting Nazis. But it wouldn’t make much sense for Polly’s backup on this mission to be another Medieval historian. It was the middle of World War II; the third historian would need to be someone whose research was somewhere around that time period. And not one of the male students, either—Polly already paid little enough attention to Colin without having someone more appropriately aged along to catch her eye. Polly had a friend—Meredith? No, Merope. She was working on something around World War II; she’d do.

So. The intrepid Dr. Templer caught up with Dr. Churchill and Merope What-was-her-last-name just outside the cave of secrets that Dr. Indiana Jones and the Nazis had just entered. “Psst, Polly!” he called.

Dr. Churchill turned to face him with a half-smile on her face. She looked as smashing as ever, with her hair blowing in the wind and her eyes full of excitement. “Whatever are you doing here, Colin?” she asked. Maybe it was puzzlement in her eyes, not excitement.

“I’ve come to rescue you!” Dr. Templer announced. “Well, warn you. Indiana Jones is after the crusades diaries and so are the Nazis! You have to stay away from them!”

“Who’s Indiana Jones?” Merope asked. She didn’t seem the sort to watch classic vids, so she’d probably never heard of him.

Colin thought for a minute. How best to describe Indiana Jones? “He’s an archaeologist and an adventurer,” he said. “He tracks down priceless artifacts and retrieves them.”

“He’s basically a glorified graverobber,” Polly interrupted.

“Well, yeah, I guess you could call him that. But he’s one of the good guys! It’s better for him to retrieve the artifacts than the Nazis. And besides, aren’t we retrieving artifacts too?”

“Merope and I are retrieving artifacts,” Polly said archly. “I don’t think you’d finished explaining what you’re doing here.”

He just couldn’t catch a break. “I told you, I’ve come to retrieve you. You have to come back because Indiana Jones and a whole bunch of Nazis are between us and the irreplaceable ancient documents.”

“Well, we already knew there might be Nazis, so what’s one more person?” Polly asked.

“One more person?” Colin exclaimed in dismay. “Polly, this is Indiana Jones. He’s not just ‘one person’.”

“How many people is he?” Merope asked sarcastically. She was looking at him as if he was still a kid, and Colin didn’t like it. After all, he was a grown adult here, with a DPhil and everything.

“Colin, I appreciate your concern, but I’ve prepared extensively for this mission and I don’t think this development is bad enough to be worth scrapping it,” Polly said firmly. “I’d appreciate your assistance if you want to come along though.”

So much for gaining her respect with a nick-of-time rescue. In comparison, getting dragged along on a mission he hadn’t even prepared for was decidedly second-rate. But it was better than getting sent back to Oxford with his tail between his legs, because at least this way he got to spend time with Polly. And maybe there would still be a chance for him to come to the rescue.

Polly looked into the middle distance, hair still blowing fetchingly around her face. “Our target is right over there,” she said with a dramatic gesture. “Follow me!”

The three historians hurried toward the hidden cave where Colin knew Indiana Jones and the Nazis would be soon. He hoped Polly knew what she was doing. But of course she did. Polly was the smartest person he knew.

“Do we know when the cave-in will happen?” Merope hissed as they walked through the boulder-strewn desert at a half-crouch. Colin had nearly forgotten that there was going to be a disaster but of course there had to be or they wouldn’t have come to retrieve the documents. A cave-in sounded even more dangerous than the fire he’d been expecting.

Polly glanced at her wristwatch. Colin had no idea how she had managed to set it to the correct time after the drop, but she must have figured out something. Maybe from the angle of the sun? “We have twenty minutes,” Polly said calmly. “That’s plenty of time.” She darted forward out of the cover of the rocks, and the other two followed her.

Nobody shot at them in the few seconds that they were exposed. Perhaps the Nazis weren’t there yet—or perhaps they were just surprised. If the latter, it wouldn’t take them long to stop being surprised and chase after them. “Polly!” he called as he ran to catch up in the underground tunnel that they had entered. “Do we have any means of fighting back if the Nazis show up?”

“I was assuming your hero Dr. Jones had something planned,” Polly said archly.

Now that wasn’t fair. Polly and Mr. Dunworthy and Kivrin and other real historians were Colin’s heroes, not some fictional historian like Indiana Jones. But maybe they didn’t know. Colin realized that he’d never really told any of them how much he looked up to them. Maybe he should. He wondered what Mr. Dunworthy would say if he told him how important he’d been in his life.

But this was no time to get distracted. Polly and Merope were ahead of him in the cave and there would be a cave-in any minute! Colin charged ahead down the tunnel.

The room that they ended up in was half full of old brittle scrolls on decrepit shelves. The three historians pulled on gloves before carefully stacking the scrolls in the protective hardbody satchels they had brought. Ideally, they would have packaged the scrolls individually in custom-made acid-free cases, but then disaster-driven item-retrieval was not a time for best practices. In five minutes, they had seized everything they could carry and were running back down the tunnel. 

Halfway out, Colin heard people coming. He pushed Merope and Polly behind one of the largest pillars in the tunnel and ducked behind a second pillar himself. They held their breaths as Indiana Jones raced by, pursued by a large number of machine-gun toting Nazis. As soon as the Nazis had run by, Polly headed again for the surface, so Colin and Merope once again followed her.

“Did you come through our drop?” Polly asked as they kept running once they were outside. 

Finally, a chance to be of assistance! “No, my drop is closer,” Colin replied. “Come on, I’ll show you!”

They darted through the boulders towards the drop. Fortunately, the Nazis seemed to have all been chasing Jones, since there were none out here to shoot at them. As long as nobody stumbled and turned an ankle on one of the ever-present rocks they were racing over, they should be safe.

A loud explosion sounded from the cave they had just left, and on the horizon, a cloud of dust proclaimed that the expected cave-in had occurred. The historians ignored it and ran on.

Colin jumped down between a couple of the largest boulders. “Here it is,” he called back over his shoulder. “Can I give you a hand down?”

“Just take my bag so I can have my hands free,” Polly said, and tossed it down. Merope followed suit.

Colin looked at his watch. “They’re opening the drop every five minutes, so we shouldn’t have to wait long.”

They couldn’t relax yet, however, because Indiana Jones had somehow figured out what had happened and followed their trail. He appeared on one of the boulders above them, bullwhip in hand. “Those documents belong in a museum!” he yelled.

“We know!” Polly yelled back. “That’s where we’re taking them!”

Dr. Jones seemed taken aback at this response. He stood there for a moment, contemplating a response—

—and the drop opened. It probably shouldn’t be able to do that, but maybe there was some sort of Indiana Jones exception or something. None of the historians cared much about why it worked, as long as it had. They were safe!

The history department staff were ready and waiting to whisk the priceless documents away for preservation. Merope left immediately after, saying something about writing her retrieval report right away because she had plans for the evening.

Colin and Polly were left alone. “Want to get some coffee and discuss the mission?” Colin asked.

“Why not?” Polly agreed. She took his arm as they headed out of the lab. “I’m glad you came along,” she said. “I think we would have been fine without you, but it was good to have you there in case of the quadratic formula.”

“The what?” Colin asked.

“The quadratic formula,” she replied, smiling mushily at him. “Mr. Templer, what _is_ the quadratic formula?”

This was not going as planned. “What quadratic formula?”

She was yelling now. “Mr. Templer, there is only one quadratic formula! Now, are you going to recite it for me, or would you like to pay a visit to the headmaster’s office?”

Colin blinked, and Polly disappeared, replaced by the rather irate face of his maths teacher. “Oh, _that_ quadratic formula,” he tried, but it was too late.

“Headmaster! Now!” his teacher said, with a dramatic gesture towards the door. It didn’t look nearly as smashing as the dramatic gesture he had imagined Polly making earlier.

Colin picked up his books and headed for the door. This was all his mother’s live-in’s fault. If the man hadn’t gotten it in to his head to ‘rapport’ with him by keeping him up too late watching classic vids, then he wouldn’t have been dozing and daydreaming about Indiana Jones, and he wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. Now he just had to figure out how to explain that to the headmaster.


End file.
